How
To Restore Classic Farm
Tractors; How to Restore Classic John Deere Tractors; How
to Restore Classic
Farmall Tractors. Tharran E. Gaines, various publication dates.

"The Ultimate Do-It-Yourself Guide to
Rebuilding and Restoring" classic tractors in general, or
Farmalls or John Deeres in particular. I have the
Farmall book, and it's a very good reference with more than
200 pages and lots of photographs (mostly black and white)
organized into chapters on buying a tractor (and evaluating
it before you buy it), troubleshooting, engine repair,
clutch and transmission, hydraulics, electrical systems, and
more. It focuses on the original Farmalls, the Letter
Series, and the Hundred Series tractors, and provides a good
general guide to lots of repairs that can be accomplished
with relatively simple tools and patience. For more
complex tasks like servicing the power takeoff unit or
torque amplifier, the author suggests consulting a service
manual or having the work done by a qualified mechanic.

How to Keep Your
Classic Tractor Alive;
How to Rebuild and Restore Farm Tractor Engines; How
to Restore Your John
Deere Two-Cylinder
Tractor. Spencer Yost, various publication dates.

A good series of books by Spencer Yost,
founder and operator of the
Antique
Tractor Internet Service. How to Keep Your Classic Tractor Alive
is a 2009 reprint (updated with color photographs) of the
author's Antique Tractor Bible, an A to Z
primer on the old-tractor business. It features more than 200 pages covering everything from
how to buy and transport an old tractor to how to use,
maintain, repair, and paint it, plus chapters on setting up
a shop, working with metal, tractor shows and pulls, and
more. It's well illustrated with photographs, many of them close-ups of details relating to
the text. How to Rebuild and Restore Farm Tractor
Engines covers
some
fundamental
concepts then provides chapters on engine removal, disassembly, the
cylinder
head, valve train, engine block, and so on, all the way through
assembly
and testing. Spencer follows the actual rebuilding of engines from
a Farmall
F-20, Ford 8N, John Deere B, and a few others, with clear text and lots
of photos to make it an informative read for anyone with a wrench and a
willing attitude. How to Restore Your John Deere Two-Cylinder Tractor
continues the series, with lots of
photos
and detailed captions illustrating restoration of the engine and
various
components of the two-cylinder John Deeres.

How
to Restore Your Farm
Tractor. Robert
Pripps, 1992.

General
descriptions of how various
tractor
components work, and a summary of the restoration process on a Farmall A and a
Ford 9N. No substitute for a shop manual, parts book, and dirty
fingernails, but useful for less-experienced mechanics like me in
determining what to try themselves and what to hire out. Out of
print now, and superseded in quality by Tharran Gaines' How to
Restore Classic Farm Tractors, above.

How
to Restore Tractor
Magnetos.
Neil Yerigan, 1994, 2011.

Excellent,
step-by-step descriptions
and photos
of how to repair a huge variety of magnetos. Also includes a
good
general description of basic electrical systems. The late Mr.
Yerigan's
expertise was matched by his helpfulness, and his book is a good
reference
for anyone who didn't have the opportunity to ask questions of him in
person. The
original 1994 version has long been out of print, but the book was
republished in 2011.

Thanks
for visiting!
E-mail me at dean.vinson@gmail.com
if you have any comments--I'm always glad to talk tractors and such. --Dean
Vinson